Abstract
The Criminal History Review Unit (CHRU) of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) helps process Daycare and Foster Care applications by collecting and reviewing criminal history review data. The CHRU was experiencing increased workloads and mounting storage needs, and the processing of applications was manually-intensive and inefficient. The goal of the case management solution was to implement an automated workflow system to minimize the physical handling of the applications and streamline the overall business processes. The solution enables users -- Criminal History Raters, Criminal History Reporting staff, Criminal History Analysts, and Record Keepers to securely and reliably expedite application processing while meeting legal requirements for processing background checks, enabling validation and audits. The case management platform provides an integrated system that supports processing, maintenance, and distribution of criminal history reviews so that state staff can respond accurately and efficiently. It also provides interoperability with the applications from other agencies and departments.